This invention concerns an automatic loader for drill rods employed in association with boring machines comprising a guide and drive assembly, on which the drill rods are mounted and made to rotate in order to drill the ground.
The automatic loader according to the invention comprises a store, on which a plurality of drill rods are temporarily arranged, located adjacent to the guide and drive assembly of the boring machine.
A pick-up mechanism, cooperating with the store, is provided to selectively pick up one of the rods and position it on the guide and drive assembly.
Conventional boring machines, employed to bore the ground, comprise a guide and drive assembly able to make the drill rods rotate; the drill rods are several meters long and at the lower end a drilling tool is associated to drill the ground.
In order to perform drilling operations of several tens of meters in depth, it is necessary to attach a plurality of drill rods one after the other, until the specified depth is reached.
The drill rods are normally prepared in appropriate containers, or stores, arranged at the side of the boring machine; they are mounted onto the guide and drive assembly one by one, by means of movement means, which are at least partly automatic.
The movement means, however, often do not ensure a secure grip of the drill rods during the pick-up step, and make it difficult to position the drill rods precisely on the guide and drive assembly.
The state of the art includes a boring machine wherein the loader is of the rotary type and is mounted on the frame, on one side with respect to the guide and drive assembly, while the movement means are mounted on the opposite side.
In this embodiment, however, the combination of the boring machine and the loader is very bulky.
With this machine, moreover, given the particular arrangement of the different assemblies, it is not possible to prepare a new drill rod while the boring machine is drilling, due to the interference which the movement means would create with the guide and drive assembly.
Therefore, the time required to load the drill rods is substantially lengthened, which does not make possible to optimize the working cycle of the boring machine.
The present Applicant has devised and embodied this invention to overcome these shortcomings and to obtain other advantages.
The invention is set forth and characterized in the main claim, while the dependent claims describe other characteristics of the main embodiment.
The purpose of the invention is to achieve a loader which will allow to perform the operations of arranging the drill rods on the guide and drive assembly easily, quickly and completely automatically, limiting to a minimum the inactive times of the boring machine with which it is associated. Another purpose of the invention is to achieve a loader for drill rods which is extremely versatile, that is, which can be used for drill rods of different lengths and diameters, and which has a limited bulk so that the relative boring machine can be used even in limited operating spaces.
The automatic loader according to the invention is associated on one side of the guide and drive assembly of the relative boring machine and comprises at least a store to contain the drill rods and a movement device arranged in an intermediate position between the store and the guide and drive assembly.
To be more exact, the movement device comprises at least an oscillating arm associated at the end with a gripper member which can be selectively activated by actuator means of a pneumatic or oil-dynamic type.
The gripper member is also able to rotate with respect to the relative oscillating arm, to cooperate selectively with the rod container store and with the guide and drive assembly.
In a preferential embodiment, the gripper member comprises jaws of an interchangeable type, which can be replaced according to the diameter of the drill rods which have to be moved.
In an advantageous embodiment, the container store is also of the rotary type, so that it can be selectively arranged with the drill rod to be used facing towards the movement device.
According to the invention, the drill rods are picked up from the container store and arranged in an operating position on the guide and drive assembly by a coordinated movement of the oscillating arm and the gripper member.
Thanks to the position of the movement device, it is possible to pick up and prepare the drill rods for loading even while the boring machine is drilling, since there is no danger of interference between the movement device and the guide and drive assembly.
As soon as the drilling step is finished, the new rod to be loaded can thus be mounted immediately onto the guide and drive assembly, so that the inactive time of the boring machine is reduced to a minimum.
During the movement of the container store to the guide and drive assembly, the drill rods are always gripped by the gripper member, which substantially prevents any risk of the drill rods falling.
The automatic loader according to the invention is also extremely compact and suitable to act in very limited spaces, therefore the boring machine with which it is associated can be used substantially under any operating conditions.